Stuffed toys known as teddy bears originated in approximately 1902 when the then President, Theodore Roosevelt, refused to shoot a bear on a hunting trip in Alabama. A newspaper picked the story up, called the lucky bear a “Teddy Bear” and soon a craze developed. Over the years, teddy bears have come in many sizes and shapes and have evolved beyond the simple stuffed bear. As the form of the stuffed toy has evolved, the ways of making and marketing the stuffed toys have also evolved. They go from very inexpensive stuffed toys that may be given as a prize at a carnival game to very expensive stuffed toys, one brand is called “Gund”, that may be collectible. One company has sold stuffed toys by producing a story that accompanies the toy and making them in limited numbers. This has made these toys collectible. They are commonly known by the trademark “Beanie Babies™.”
One particular way that has been employed to sell stuffed toys and to provide an enhanced experience for a customer takes place in shops that offer a customer an opportunity to be involved in the choice of the form and making of the stuffed toy. Perhaps the most widely known of these shops employing such a method to build and sell a stuffed toy is a company that goes by the trade name “Build-A-Bear.” In this particular store, a customer is shown a variety of finished stuffed toys and picks a particular empty stuffed toy form to be stuffed. The unstuffed form is taken to a standardized stuffing machine. While the customer looks on a foot pedal on the stuffing machine is used to control the flow of stuffing material from the stuffing machine. A customer may be invited to press the foot pedal. An employee of the store will place a tube into an opening in the unstuffed toy form. As the foot pedal is employed, compressed air blows a raw cotton-like filling into the form which gradually fills the form to give the finished stuffed toy a satisfactory amount of stuffing. The “Build-A-Bear” experience then includes enclosing within the now stuffed toy a red, heart shaped, small cushion approximately the size of a silver dollar. This is the “heart” of the stuffed toy. The toy is then closed off by lacing the toy up in the back. The customer then has the opportunity of going to a computer screen and entering information into a set of fields on the computer screen which then produces a printed certificate that memorializes the purchase of the stuffed toy and which, for marketing reasons, is called a “Birth Certificate.” The customer will be given an opportunity to groom the stuffed toy and to buy accessories for the toy. At the time it comes to pay for the customer's purchases, the toy will be placed inside a particular type of box characteristic of, and perhaps unique to, the “Build-A-Bear” store. This method builds upon and utilizes the desire of a customer, especially a child, to be a part of the overall experience and to feel that their particular stuffed toy is unique. It is this illusion of uniqueness which gives extra value to the stuffed toys that are sold in the “Build-A-Bear” venue as opposed to a standard store with bins of standard stuffed toys. This notion of uniqueness, or at least specialness, is also part of the reason for the widespread success of the “Beanie Babies™” where each particular edition of a “Beanie Baby” would be accompanied by a particular story and there would be sold in a limited edition. Once that particular edition was sold out, there would be no more babies made of that type.
These types of stuffed toys and the marketing of these stuffed toys to some degree play on a well known human characteristic of ascribing human traits to animals or inanimate objects. This trait is commonly called anthropomorphism. Human traits are frequently ascribed to animals, so when one uses terms like “proud”, “angry”, “vengeful”, “loyal”, and the like to describe an animal, it is commonly believed that these terms are misnomers and that in fact animals are acting instinctively. (Many pet owners might disagree.) But, certainly, when a captain describes his ship as “stubborn”, or when a computer is described as “stupid”, people are ascribing human characteristics to inanimate objects that clearly do not have those characteristics. It is part of growing up that children learn to distinguish themselves from the outside world and to not ascribe their own characteristics and motivations to things other than human beings. However, it is characteristic of childish thinking to believe that the world is like a child, thus “Beanie Babies” and “Build-A-Bear” to some degree seek to capitalize on this known characteristic of children by ascribing known human qualities to the inanimate objects they sell. Each “Beanie Baby” comes with a story. “Build-A-Bear” places a “heart” inside of each stuffed toy and provides a “birth certificate” in addition to or opposed to a bill of sale. Thus, it is understood that it is a useful characteristic of a toy that the toy be unique for a particular customer and that a customer, especially a child, should be encouraged to ascribe human characteristics to that toy. Despite the recognition of the value of providing both the illusion of uniqueness and the illusion of human characteristics to a toy, there is still much work that can be done to capitalize on these known human traits to provide a customer, especially a child, with a stuffed toy with apparently unique human characteristics chosen by the child for that toy.